


Aftermath

by ghostwriter00797



Category: Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist
Genre: Alternate Universe- Psychic Powers, Dex is Not Okay, Gen, I mean he looked like he was in a lot of pain in the episode, If I need to tag something tell me, Likely near-death situations considering the nature of the show, Vague mentions of violence/injury, Vauge mentions of death, for a children's show it gets incredibly dark, it did something to him, just saying, not a cohesive story, probably going to be a collection of oneshots, so why would he be fine after?, the psychic bug didn't just make him halluncinate, the rest of the gang is suspicious, unpleasant side effects
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 08:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11779593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostwriter00797/pseuds/ghostwriter00797
Summary: Dex has always bounced back from near-death experiences. It's why he's the leading expert in his field. This time, however, recovery may not be so simple. Dex has finally found a bug that he fears, and it left him with more than just bad memories.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> I should be writing literally anything else right now. I should be working on my Max Steel fanfiction or one of my two series that I've got. Instead I found this show and decided to make it Angsty™. No one will ever read this, but here it is. Adventures into why I should never do the 'accidental psychic powers' AUs.  
> (Also, for a children's show there are a lot of dark things going on. Examples include one of the main characters being a genetic experiment designed for war, another one being one of (presumably) two clones to survive their escape from the government facility at a very young age, multiple times in which the main characters are almost killed, and the leader of the team being stalked and almost killed by a monster that can create hallucinations while alone in the middle of space about to be sucked into a black hole. Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing. Again.)

    He can still feel it for days after the team rescues him. The pressure of the vacuum, the pain in his head, the feeling of being pulled apart in every direction until something snapped. Honestly, he’s glad that Jenny thought he’d been crying. It kept attention off of his bloodshot eyes. Bloodshot eyes that leaked unidentifiable black liquid when the migraines started. It was hard keeping it from the team, but he really hadn’t thought it was a big deal. Just a few side effects from being exposed to whatever force that bug had used. And then one night everything hurts so badly he feels like he’s going to die and he somehow  _ pushes _ it all out until he’s exhausted beyond belief.

(The next morning he wakes up to dented walls and twisted belongings.)

Dex knows something has changed after that. Everything is so loud. He keeps hearing things before people say them and Jenny seems to emit nothing but static that fills his ears and makes him cry out in pain. His emotions are all over the place, irritated when he’s alone, ready to kill someone in anger even though he likes the person, feeling hungry even when he’s about to puke from eating too much. It gets harder and harder to keep the migraines away, more medicine to keep them under control, and so much more lying because he doesn’t want to worry the team. They depend on him and he can’t let them down.

The migraines eventually stop as he figures out how to  _ push _ the pain out of his mind. Sure his room looks like it’s been through several natural disasters ( **and he’s not going to think about what he did** ), but it’s worth it if he can function without fear of being suddenly crippled in the field. He focuses on the pure defensive power of Arthur’s exoskeleton whenever he hears things or feels things that he knows aren’t his and eventually he’s barely able to get that manageable too. When he glances at the calendar one day it nearly breaks Dex as he realizes that it has only been a month. A month after one of his closest brushes with death and he feels fine.

(Something is wrong with him.)

* * *

 

It takes several more months before Dex can fake the way he used to be without dropping the facade by accident. He still can’t go near the island without doing so. Every time the team has to travel past that planet he can feel the inhuman question of that bug in his mind. It makes him recoil like he never has before and sometimes he hates himself for it. It wasn’t the poor thing’s fault. It was hunting like it always did. He just happened to be the prey that time. The rest of the team seems to have other ideas about what to do if anything like that ever happens again.

(Dex does his best not to listen in, but sometimes he can’t block it out.)

The first time he uses the  _ push _ to save his team Dex spends all night puking his guts out from the pain he can still feel hours later. He tries to tell himself that it wasn’t his fault, that he didn’t mean it. He’s lying.

(And in the back of his mind the part of him that  _knows_ is screaming.)


End file.
